Push-to-talk (PTT) devices are commonly employed by public safety personnel, air traffic controllers, emergency workers, construction site workers and others who need to be in constant and readily available voice communication. PTT, also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of communicating using half-duplex communication lines. A PTT button may be pressed to switch a device from a voice reception mode to a transmit-mode. For example, one operator may depress the PTT button on her device and speak into the device's microphone. The speech is converted into an appropriate format and transmitted to one or more other devices, where the operators of those other devices hear the first operator speak through their device's speaker.
In a two-way radio system, each PTT radio typically communicates with one group of radios (talkgroup) at a time. Even though a radio may switch between talkgroups, the radio may still only be able to communicate with a single talkgroup at a time. For example, a firefighter may be affiliated with or using a firefighter talkgroup and a police officer may be affiliated with or using a police talkgroup. Talkgroups outside of those currently listened to by a radio will not be heard by other radios or consoles. Thus, a radio speaker will only output audio from a talkgroup associated with the radio, and the radio's transmission will only be heard by those communicating on a same talkgroup.
When using a PTT radio to communicate, it is important for the user to know the talkgroup they currently selected for transmit and receive communications. Oftentimes talkgroup information is provided on a display incorporated into the radio/device or by a physical rotary knob with fixed, discrete positions. Many radios employing PTT also employ a power-savings mode in order to extend battery live. Oftentimes the power-savings mode will turn off any display in order to save power, making it difficult to determine the current talkgroup, particularly if the PTT radio contains no physical knobs or switches to determine the selected talkgroup. With the display turned off, there will be no means to check talkgroup, scan state, or link status when PTT is pressed. This means when PTT is pressed, user may not know the talkgroup used to start the call. Since standby (power savings) will be the predominant state of the device, this will be often the case. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for displaying information on a radio that alleviates the above-mentioned issue.
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The system and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.